All of this is a long-winded way of telling you that John Hoven's blog is a gold mine. He was at it again today, asking Roberto Luongo about his resemblance with Kings winger Dwight King (pictured above). This was the first I'd ever heard about Luongo's NHL doppleganger, but looking at some photos the resemblance is actually uncanny.

Canucks General Manager Mike Gillis appeared on the Team 1040's "Scotty and Company" morning show on Friday and was asked a whole host of questions. In the fiften minute interview the Canucks President and General Manager addressed David Booth's injury status, Ryan Kesler's injury status, the likelihood of a NIcklas Jensen call up, trade deadline priorities, and most interesting from our perspective: analytics.

Scott Rintoul, pivoting off of James Mirtle's fascinating piece on the Pittsburgh Penguins, Moneyball and the James Neal acquisition which ran in the Globe and Mail on Thursday, asked Mike Gillis this question: "When it does come to player movement, how much do analytics factor into your personnel decisions?" Gillis' response: (transcription my own)

"They're a factor but they're not the ultimate factor.

I think James Neal has also benefitted from playing with extremely good players in Pittsburgh. When you're playing with Evgeni Malkin your opportunities to score and your opportunities to produce are going to be a little bit stronger than if you're playing with some other guys.

So I think analytics play a role in helping you make decisions, but there's lots of factors that go into making a decision like that."

In a game that featured two controversial goalie running incidents, Keith Ballard on the Canucks third line, and zero scoring chances from the Sedin-line - the Canucks somehow managed to pull out a regulation win in the comfy confines of Jobbing.com arena. Heh, Jobbing.com arena.

More immaturity, but also super technical analysis of Thursday night's game, after the jump.

Late in the second period of Thursday night's Canucks game in Glendale, Arizona the Canucks were on the power-play when an unsuspecting Mike Smith left his net to play the puck in the trapezoid. What happened next will shock you! In fact there's lots of shocking things about this play.

First off, it's a bit of an uncharacteristic shot from Alex Edler - who generally plays more like a Lady Byng candidate than a thug. Secondly, it's uncharacteristic of Mike Smith to hop back up after an opposition skaters makes contact with him, as opposed to doing his best Ryan Kelser impression and rolling around on the ice. Thirdly, Alex Edler was assessed a major for charging on the play, which I found kind of surprising.